Mowgli, fictional character, an Indian boy raised by wolves who is the central figure in Rudyard Kipling’s collection of children’s stories included in The Jungle Book (1894) and its sequel (1895).
A character by the name of Mowgli first appeared in Kipling’s story “In the Rukh” (1892; collected in Many Inventions, 1893). In this story he is an adult who, from time to time, refers to his unusual childhood.